Singapore, Wednesday, 24 November 2021
1. In line with Singapore’s push to accelerate the adoption of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies to enhance manufacturing capabilities among enterprises, the Singapore Standards Council (SSC) and Enterprise Singapore (ESG) have launched a series of standards initiatives to guide enterprises in the understanding and application of advanced and additive manufacturing. These efforts were announced at the Industrial Transformation Asia Pacific (ITAP 2021) today.
Two new standards to ensure quality and safety of additive manufacturing products
2. The SSC, the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) and the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Cluster (NAMIC), together with industry stakeholders, have developed two new standards on additive manufacturing (AM).
a. Singapore Standard 666 (SS 666) provides users with a framework that covers the qualification of 3D printed metal parts. The standard also provides guidelines for each stage of the AM process to ensure that all aspects which can affect the quality of the product – the material quality of the metal powders being used, operator training, machine maintenance, and how the final AM printed parts can fulfil the criteria for acceptance – are considered and controlled. Enterprises implementing the metal AM techniques can leverage the best practices in the standard to guide their production processes and provide assurance to customers that the manufactured metal products are consistent in quality. This also enables enterprises to meet the safety and reliability requirements, by implementing more stringent controls in the manufacturing process.
b. Technical Reference 92 (TR 92) covers design guidelines for complex additive manufactured parts to ensure safety and mitigate any potential risks during the design stage. TR 92 addresses critical process specific considerations during the manufacturing of these complex parts. This aims to reduce the lead time and cost incurred for design amendments as well as prevent design errors which may result in serious injuries caused by part failure. Please refer to Annex B for more details.
New standard programme to boost cyber readiness among manufacturers
3. The first Workshop Agreement (WA), “Cybersecurity self-evaluation checklist and guidelines for digitalisation in manufacturing”, was launched today. Led by Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA) and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research’s (A*STAR) Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech), and supported by TÜV SÜD Asia Pacific, the WA sets out cybersecurity standards requirements to help manufacturing companies determine cybersecurity gaps and readiness which are critical as they build up their digital value chain and connected production assets as part of their I4.0 journey. A new type of standard, WAs seek to address urgent industry needs, especially in emerging fields, with a shortened development timeline. More details on the WA can be found in Annex C.
New partnership to incorporate standards in training programmes on I4.0
4. ESG has also partnered the Advanced Manufacturing Training Academy (AMTA) to enhance I4.0-related courses with standards content. This will help manufacturing enterprises better understand how they can leverage standards when implementing I4.0 technologies. ESG and AMTA will work with Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) to incorporate standards in key I4.0 areas such as connectivity, cybersecurity and robotics in their training courses.
5. The first course to be developed under the partnership is on industrial connectivity which references the SS IEC 62541 Open Platform Communication Unified Architecture (OPC UA) series of connectivity standards that enable the exchange of data across machines and systems. Supported by OPC Hub ASEAN, the course will be offered by Singapore Polytechnic to the advanced manufacturing workforce in early 2022.
6. Ms Choy Sauw Kook, Director-General (Quality & Excellence), Enterprise Singapore, said, “To help manufacturers step up on their I4.0 efforts, ESG has worked with industry stakeholders to develop new standards and training courses. With these new standards, it will allow companies of all sizes to kickstart their implementation of I4.0 technologies and additive manufacturing techniques. The training courses will ensure the effective use of standards and prepare manufacturing companies to move into new areas without the need for trial and errors, while shortening their learning curve in standards adoption. I thank our partners for their contributions in these new standards initiatives.”
7. Brigadier-General David Neo, Deputy Secretary (Technology), MINDEF, said, “Additive Manufacturing (AM) is an important capability for MINDEF/SAF to strengthen our supply chain, and allows us to enhance innovation and operational outcomes through efforts such as rapid prototyping. The new technical and safety standards will enable the SAF, our partners, and local industries to harness the transformative potential of AM.”
8. Dr Ho Chaw Sing, Co-chair of the Technical Committee on Additive Manufacturing and Managing Director NAMIC said, “I am pleased to see the completion of one of the most important areas under the strategic partnership laid down in the Memorandum of Understanding between NAMIC and MINDEF/SAF in 2017. We expect these new standards and technical references, together with the TR 70 published in 2019, to not just benefit the Defence sector, but also in heavy industry sectors such as aerospace and marine, with additional considerations based on the field operating conditions of AM parts, providing clear design and tiered-qualification requirements for mission-critical applications.”
9. The SS 666, TR 92 and Cybersecurity Checklist Workshop Agreement Document can be purchased from the Singapore Standards eShop at www.singaporestandardseshop.sg.
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